For a film that's been mooted as a mix of live-action and animation, there's little-to-no talk of the real world at all. Certainly its the famous mini-figures (with "really nice character stories") that are set to be the stars, and Lord describes "a universe that's made entirely out of Lego, to the point where if there's water or clouds or a big explosion, that will be made out of Lego." He says that the goal is to make it seem like a "super-charged" version of the countless home-made Lego movies that proliferate on the interweb: "something like if Michael Bay kidnapped Henry Selick to make a movie for him".

Lego fans will be well aware that there are various themes to the sets: city, pirates, medieval knights, Alantis, Space, and so on. Lord says the plan is to include all of these within the movie, and hints that, rights permitting, there may even be room for the licensed properties like Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter: "there is a way... It remains to be seen how much of that can happen, but it's certainly a possibility."

So a quirky animated fantasy, bookended Pagemaster-style with live-action sequences, featuring Toy Story-type cameos by branded characters? Or something altogether different and new and unusual. We'll be watching this one build.